I find Twitter to be paradoxical: in order to stay informed you have to follow other tweets and amass a following of you own; but the more followers you have, and the more organizations/people you follow, the harder it becomes to keep up to date with everything they tweet about and for you to respond to people.
Some organizations like @AHA post a few announcements every day or so. Others like @LoyolaChicago and @ChicagoMuseum post announcements by the hour. The average number of followers seems to be roughly two to three thousand people; @LoyolaChicago has about 7,000 but @fieldmeuseum has over 11,000 followers. It must be difficult to try to respond to each of these followers who have questions. Announcements seem to be the most practical way for organizations to use Twitter.
The trends can also vary in intensity of posts. #history is posted by the minute by all kinds of people (professionals, amateurs, and the immature). #Chicago is posted by the seconds (good luck keeping up with that). Some trends can be thought-provoking, but others can be purely entertaining, like #RandomThoughtsonmyMind.
Overall, I find Twitter to be overwhelming and unnecessary for historians. blogs and websites can easily inform people about a particular subject. I find the 140 character limit to be unnecessarily restrictive. If you are a popular organization with a large following, then twitter is only good for posting announcements. But large followings can lead to an endless barrage of information. Thoughtful discussions should be left to the blogs and discussion forums of other websites.
Twitter is definitely not my thing, but maybe I’m overreacting. What do you think about twitter?
Dear Colin Scheer,
I just stumbled across this and, I am the Historian for my high schools NHS program and I am looking for some sort of website that will send out text messages to our members because that is how most people communicate theses days.
Somebody told me twitter or something like that does that, but if not, what website could I use?
Keep up the good work
Facebook is another website that allows you to send out messages. You can set up a group site that your members can join. It can also serve as a discussion forum if that’s something you want (twitter’s 140 character limit is a bit restrictive in my opinion). If you only want to send out quick messages, then twitter might be the better way to go, but you have to make sure that all of your members are following your twitter account.
Twitter isn’t horrible, it just can be a bit overwhelming for first-time users (like myself). Luckily you have control over which kinds of people/groups/organizations you want to follow.
Thanks for commenting.
When I first heard of Twitter, I was amazed and amused that it was spreading like wildfire in a frenzy of popularity. It’s all based on a message limited to 140 characters that basically tells people what you are doing at the moment. My first reaction was, who cares? But apparently people do, and folks are not bashful about sharing what they are up to with others. So, why not use this proclivity to visit for word of mouth advertising or for spreading the word for a worthy cause? Your posted messages, by the way, are known as Tweets.
No doubt, Twitter has great marketing potential. However, because everyone uses Twitter, it can be difficult to make yourself heard among the “noise.” Twitter is good for quick announcements, but not for lengthy discussions (something I think Twitter may not be able to satisfy that need). If you don’t mind navigating through the nonstop tweets, then more power to you.
Ola! Colin Scheer,
Speaking of which, There’s little doubt that Twitter has become a social phenomenon. But there’s more to Twitter than finding out what your best friend living 5,000 miles away is reading. There are little known secrets that big businesses and a few small ones are using to drive traffic to their websites using Twitter.
Regards
Hi,
I would agree that i do not like twitter. Pinterest is my thing. Yet 140 characters limit makes sense. Why? Because Twitter is made for quick announcements. It a Reddit styles site. If someone wants to write longer announcements, then do it on the link you share on twitter. Followers can also comment on your blog. For your own site, it is better if you visitors comment on your site, than on Twitter.